FROM PAGE ONE
Tuesday, July 27, 2021
THe OBseRVeR — A5
FIRES
Continued from Page A1
“We’ve been seeing August-
like conditions since late June,”
Livingston said.
That prompted a term that
Livingston has adopted, but was
quick to credit to a colleague,
Matt Hoehna, a unit forester at
the Oregon Department of For-
estry office in Pendleton.
“Ninety-day August.”
In other words, fire man-
agers who are accustomed to
fire danger that peaks during
August and lasts for perhaps a
month or six weeks, in 2021, due
to its abnormally early start, has
the potential to extend for three
months.
Or even more.
Livingston said fire danger, as
expressed by the energy release
component, tends to be cumula-
tive, because logs, limbs and live
grasses and shrubs become drier
as summer progresses and the
weeks with little or no rainfall
accumulate.
That’s the reason that in most
parts of the Wallowa-Whitman,
August has the highest average
daily energy release component,
even though July, in many years,
has higher average temperatures.
Unless a major shift in the
weather pattern brings much
cooler temperatures and wide-
spread rain to the region — and
meteorologists aren’t forecasting
anything like that — Living-
ston said he expects the energy
release component will continue
to run near, or above, the all-
time daily records.
Ben lonergan/East Oregonian
A firefighter assigned to battle the Elbow Creek Fire in northern Wallowa County walks toward the fire line on Thursday, July
22, 2021.
Forest restrictions may ease
fire dangers
The prospect of a prolonged
period of extreme fire danger
is a primary reason that Wal-
lowa-Whitman officials enacted
Ben lonergan/East Oregonian
A hand-cut fire break crosses a canyon along the Switchfoot Drainage near Promise
on Thursday, July 22, 2021, as fire crews attempt to rein in the Elbow Creek Fire.
the most stringent public use
restrictions — Phase C — on July
16. In most summers over the past
decade the Wallowa-Whitman
either never reached that level, or
did so in August.
In 2020, for instance, another
abnormally dry summer, the
Wallowa-Whitman imposed
Phase C on Sept. 12 — and
reverted to the less-restrictive
Phase B on Sept. 25.
The neighboring Umatilla
National Forest, meanwhile, took
the rare step of closing the entire
1.4-million-acre forest to public
entry starting July 16.
According to a press release
from the Umatilla, that decision
was due not only to extreme fire
danger, but also because three
large fires were already burning
on the forest.
Livingston said the current sit-
uation with active fires, which
take up some of a national forest’s
firefighting capacity, is one factor
in any discussion among forest
officials about potentially closing
the entire forest to the public.
Wallowa-Whitman officials
aren’t having that discussion now,
Livingston said.
But they are exquisitely aware
that such a conversation could
well be necessary before autumn.
Livingston said two key fac-
tors, when it comes to the pos-
sibility of closing a forest to the
public, are whether forest officials
are confident they have sufficient
resources to deal with a new, rap-
idly growing fire, and how high
the risk of human-caused fires is.
Livingston said the Wal-
lowa-Whitman is well-prepared
to deal with new fires now.
As for the risk of human-
caused fires, all campfires are
banned under Phase C, and Liv-
ingston said he has taken the
unusual step of having fire engine
crews, which usually don’t patrol
in the evenings, visiting camp-
grounds and other popular recre-
ation spots at night to check for
illegal fires.
Over the past week, fire-
fighters have reported eight
illegal campfires on the
Wallowa-Whitman.
“We’re trying to stay on top of
that,” Livingston said.
One policy that has been post-
poned this summer on the Wal-
lowa-Whitman is the practice of
allowing some lightning-caused
fires to burn naturally in the
Eagle Cap Wilderness. Blazes in
the 365,000-acre wilderness —
Oregon’s largest — can benefit
the land by reducing fuel loading.
In 2019 the Granite Gulch Fire
burned more than 3,000 acres in
the Eagle Cap, the largest such
blaze since the Forest Service
instituted the policy about 25
years ago.
“That’s not a risk we’re going
to take this year,” Livingston
said.
MOVIE
Continued from Page A1
Bootleg Fire/Contributed Photo
A single-engine air tanker drops retardant in early July 2021 on the Bootleg Fire
burning in Klamath and Lake counties.
HESSEL
Continued from Page A1
it left an impact on my mind,”
Hessel said in a phone interview
from the Bootleg Fire camp.
In 1989, its size — 20,000
acres — made the Dooley Moun-
tain Fire an outlier.
It was a time when firefighters
considered even a 500-acre fire a
significant blaze.
But then Hessel, who started
his firefighting career with ODF
at age 16, compares Dooley
Mountain to Bootleg.
“This fire grew an average
of 30,000 acres for 13 days
straight,” he said of the blaze that
began July 6.
The Bootleg Fire is the sort
of blaze that requires a group of
specialists — what’s known as
an “overhead team” or “incident
management team” — to coor-
dinate the efforts of hundreds or
even thousands of people, as well
as bulldozers and other equip-
ment on the ground, and air
tankers and helicopters above.
Almost 2,400 people are
assigned to the Bootleg Fire.
Hessel, who heads one of the
ODF’s three overhead teams,
said they have been called out
more often, and for longer
periods, over the past several
years.
He said it has become increas-
ingly difficult for agencies to find
employees willing to potentially
give up much of their summer, to
forgo family vacations in favor
of traveling hundreds of miles to
work on a big blaze.
“We used to go out maybe
only once in a summer,” Hessel
said. “One of our teams was out
five times last year.”
The Bootleg Fire is his team’s
second assignment this summer.
The first, also in Klamath
County, was the Cutoff Fire in
June.
Hessel, whose dad was a
Forest Service smokejumper and
manager of the firefighting air
center in La Grande while he
was growing up, said incident
management teams typically are
assigned to a fire for 14 days,
with the potential to extend the
stay to 21 days.
Team members then return
home for a couple days.
Hessel, who was sent to the
Bootleg Fire on July 10, said he
doubts he’ll return home before
July 27.
After his time off, he said his
team will be “back on the board”
— meaning they’re available to
be assigned to another fire.
And with most of Oregon
enduring extreme fire danger,
Hessel doesn’t expect to wait
long for his next job.
“It’s become a recurring
theme every summer,” he said.
“I hope that the message this
movie sends will make all of
us more vigilant, and inclined
to safeguard the well-being of
young people who deserve the
opportunity to thrive,” Lathrop
said in a written statement.
She said that the bullying
Jadin experienced could have
happened anywhere and that
people everywhere need to
focus on this issue.
“This is where our schools
and communities and our par-
ents need to focus their atten-
tion because our young people
are at risk,” Lathrop said.
“Each of us needs to examine
ourselves and begin making
changes. We need to look at
our own actions and consider
how they affect others, instead
of casting the first stone.”
Mendoza said
LGBTQ2SIA+ students often
experience discrimination,
harassment and bias at schools
and in their lives.
“These experiences can
send students a message that
they do not belong and can
lead to depression and other
mental health challenges,” the
superintendent said in written
statement.
He said this may lead to
thoughts of suicide. Adult
guidance, though, can go a
long way toward preventing
thoughts of self-harm from
becoming attempts.
“As adults we have the
responsibility to do every-
thing in our power to ensure
that young people in our lives
are affirmed and supported for
exactly who they are,” Men-
doza said.
The superintendent said if
a young person comes to an
adult seeking understanding
and support for a mental
health issue the La Grande
School District has resources
to help them. He stressed that
the school district also has
resources to help any student
who is in need of mental health
support.
These resources include
the school district’s School
Based Health Center and coun-
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Quantrell d. Colbert/ Roadside Attractions
This image provided by Roadside Attractions shows Reid Miller, left, portraying
Jadin Bell, and Mark Wahlberg, portraying Bell’s father, in a scene from the film
“Joe Bell.”
“As adults we have
the responsibility to do
everything in our power to
ensure that young people in
our lives are affirmed and
supported for exactly who
they are.”
George Mendoza, La Grande School District
Superintendent
seling support offered through
the school district’s day treat-
ment program for students in
kindergarten through eighth
grade, which remains open this
summer.
Mendoza also said anyone
who has a concern can con-
tact their school’s principal
via email and they will call
or have other counseling sup-
port staff call. More informa-
tion on this service is avail-
able at www.lagrandeesd.org/
cultureofcare.
Mendoza also said that to
better understand what the
school district has in place to
support students who experi-
ence bullying or mental health
trauma, people are encouraged
to go to www.lagrandesd.org/
cultureofcare to review
LGSD’s Bully Matrix & Refer-
ence Guide and its LGSD-Sui-
cide Prevention/Intervention/
Postvention plan.
Mendoza, who became the
La Grande School District’s
superintendent in 2017 after
coming here from the Morrow
County School District, said
one of his ultimate objectives
is to bring out the best in stu-
dents by creating a safe and
supportive environment with
the help of the community.
“As we remember Jadin
and Joe Bell, let us renew our
commitment to ensure that
every student is healthy, safe,
engaged and affirmed so they
can reach their full potential,”
he said.
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